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Southern Crete villages by boat question

I'm trying to plan a day trip from Chania to the south coast. I would like to take a bus from Chania to Paleochora, spend a couple hours there, then take the boat to Sfakion and bus back to Chania.

I found bus schedules - so if they don't change it looks like there's a bus at 8 from Chania to Paleochora. Looks like a bus from Sfakion back to Chania at 18:30. But I can't find boat schedules (only the duration of the trip - looks like about 3 hours).

So is this doable?
How many boat trips a day go from Paleochora to Sfakion (this will be in July)?
Would we have time to get off for a while in Sougia or Loutro and get the next boat? Is there a 'next' boat?

I've read the 18:30 bus from Sfakion to Chania waits for the boat with hikers coming for Ayia Roumeli. Does this mean the boat and the bus will be very crowded (like so crowded you might not get on)?

Is it possible (and is there any advantage) to do it in reverse? (Do bus from Chania to Sfakion, boat to Paleochora, bus to Chania).

You are going to have to modify you thinking because the ferry departs Paleochora at 8:30 That is the only departure.

Here are your options.
I believe there is a 6am bus to Sougia so there is probably a similar one to Paleochora. Since you won't have time to do much more than run for the ferry at Paleochora you could take the early bus to Sougia. The ferry departs from there at 9. That will give you an hour to walk around in the village.
The ferry then goes to Agia Romuelli from Sougia.
Sougia https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/sets/72157653311291723

The ferry terminates at Agia Romeulli. You will have an hour or so to visit the village and then take the second ferry that does the Chora Sfakion to Agia Romeulli route.

It stops at Loutro. From Loutro there are other options to get to Chora Sfakion including a water taxi and the vintage (Momma Mia style) ferry Neptune

As you study the ferry schedule there are a lot more ferrys from Chora Sfakion to Loutro and Agia Romeulli than the other way round. The first ferry departs at 10:30 so you have a more leisurely bus trip. You will have some time in the villages. The big advantage is taking the ferry from Agia Romeulli to Sougia or Paleochora is that most of the hikers go to Chora Sfakion so this route is less crowded.

One other tip; the hikers are all pretty much exhausted and they trudge off the ferry. You will still be relatively fresh and can scamper to the KTEL bus and get on first. I am not sure if you can buy your ticket for the return trip in Chania or if they just sell the ticket on the bus. You should probably ask at the bus terminal in Chania.

Lastly the Libyan sea ferry trip is something very special and you may regret doing it all in one day. You may want to consider spending a night in one of the villages.

Thanks - It was reading your trip report (and seeing the photos) that helped me decide to go to Crete in the first place.

I now see that my original plan for the day trip won't work. I know we could change things and do a couple days on the south coast, but there's so much else we want to do - I thought 8 days would be enough but I guess not.

It looks like this might work: Bus Chania to Sfakion (8:15-10). Two hours in Sfakion. Twelve o'clock boat to Loutro. Looks like we could have one hour there and get the 13:20 ferry to Agia Roumeli, arriving about 14:00. That would give us three and a half hours till the ferry back to Sfakion which I guess meets the bus back to Chania. Does that look like I am reading the schedules correctly?

We wouldn't get to see Paleochora but would at least get to see some of the south coast. I can't see any way the we could do Paleochora plus a boat trip in just one day. Was one part of that coastline more spectacular than another? Where were those great shots with the mountains coming right down to the water?

As I outlined in my post it is possible to do the whole thing by starting in CS but realistically it a long day and in my mind slower is better. If you can't do an overnight then plan B you just proposed will be a very happy day for you.

I think there is an earlier ferry to Loutro than the 12:00. Frankly CS isn't really a captivating place. It is well situated to go other places but I would catch that 10:30 ferry to Loutro. Loutro is very small but you will find the time flashes by until that 13:20 ferry to Agia Roumelli. This will give you time in AR to hike up towards the end of the Samaria Gorge walk. The original abandoned Agia Roumelli village is up there. We hiked that trail until the ticket booth which takes a good hour and a half return. ( we are slow walkers)

Those Sea/Mountain vistas are everywhere on this coast. Doing just half of it will be very satisfying and will make you want to return another time.

You've convinced me. So it looks like we'd have about 3 hours in Loutro and 4 hours in A. Roumelli.

I have a few questions about things in your photos.

How far up the Gorge did you walk? Specifically how far to the stone bridge and the white church, both of which are labeled 'bottom of Samaria Gorge'?

How far is it to the castle in Agia Roumeli?

The cute little boat in Loutro- where does that go?

In one photo there are two ferries - you label it 'hikers returning from Samaria hike'. Does that mean they put on more than one ferry if needed? (I just don't want to get stuck somewhere because there are too many people for either a boat or a bus, but I do like your rationalization that we won't be as tired as the hikers so we could beat them to the bus).

I can answer a couple of your questions about walking in Agia Roumeli. The walk from town up to the Turkish fort and then on to the old village (just below the entrance to the gorge) takes about 90 minutes. The walk back by way of the road is about 30 minutes. You could also walk up the gorge to the "Iron Gates" in under 2 hours.

Another possible walk would be about an hour along the coast to the east to Aghios Pavlos. There is a small restaurant there.

If it were me, I would take the 0815 bus from Hania to Sfakia and the 1030 ferry to Ag. Roumeli giving you the most time to walk and swim (my favorite place to swim is about 30 minutes east of Ag. Roumeli. There are big rocks there that give you shade and privacy.

Loutro is pretty but it is my least favorite place along the south coast. There are too many people there.

At 1730 you can take a ferry back to Sfakia and bus to Hania or take a ferry to Sougia and a bus back to Hania. The bus ride from Sougia is not as dramatic as the Sfakia route but you are also less likely to get car sick on this route. The bus in Sougia waits for the ferry to arrive from Ag R. so don't worry if the ferry is running late. You will have to walk about 5 minutes from the ferry into town to catch the bus.

I should note that there is almost no shade on any of these walks and in July it will be really hot.

There are at least 3 ferries that operate along the south coast and sometimes more than one are in the same place. A couple of years ago all 3 were in Agia Roumeli for the afternoon.

I agree to everything cwra says.
That picture of the two ferrys was when both were in AR but each departs in opposite directions.

We walked up the gorge to the ticket booth at the bottom. So technically we never actually got into the Gorge proper. Even that walk was pretty spectacular.

This summer we are staying overnight in AR and will buy a ticket and try to walk up to the iron gate.

The fortress is on the mountain directly above the village

The cute blue ferry does regular runs between Louto and Chora Sfakion. I think we will take it this year just for the experience.

We stayed in Loutro for two nights. It is picture postcard beautiful but is quite commercialized now. Last year the hotel wouldn't take a reservation because we only wanted 2 nights and they wanted a minimum of three nights. I understand most of the hotels are sold out for the season.

So a 4 hour visit will give you time to enjoy the setting but then its a good idea to go somewhere else.

Thanks, you guys are great. I think we will take the 10:30 boat from Sfakion to Agia Roumeli and then the 17:30 boat on to Sougia and get the bus back to Chania from there. Sounds like it might be less crowded than going back to Sfakion, plus we'd see a bit more of the coast.

Would you mind taking a look at our whole itinerary and see if you see any ways to make other improvements.